In the 1929 novel Sand, by Will James, a dissipated, morally and physically depleted East Coaster wakes up from a bender with nothing but the dirty, rumpled tuxedo on his back. He is deep in the American West, stuck at a railroad terminus. The story of his redemption in the rugged landscape is surprisingly engrossing, even touching. But anybody who’s spent time in the wilderness can remember how the fatalism and illusory concerns of urban life vanish when there aren’t many people around. In such places, there’s no distraction from the task of unearthing the better angels of our nature.

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